John a



(No Model.)

J. A. KNISLEY.

CUTTER BAR.

No.. 532,792. Patented Jan. 221895.

E STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. KNISLEY, OF HITT, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WILLIAM H. FAUOETT, OF SAMEPLAOE.

C U TT E R BA R SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 532,792, dated January 22 I895. Application filed Maroh 27,1894. Serial No. 505,332. (No model.)

- To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. KNIsLEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hitt, in the county of Scotland and State'of Missouri, have invented a new and useful Gutter-Bar, of which the following is a specification. I

My invention relates to cutter-bars for mowers, reapers, and similar mechanism, and it has for its object to provide means for securing clearance between the front ends of the knives and the contiguous portions of the fingers, to avoid the accumulation of trash at the front ends of the slots in the'fingers through which the knives pass.

I attain the above object by reducing th width of the fingers at the front ends of the slots therein, or at the point where the front ends of the knives operate, to form necks which are of less horizontal width than the front ends or apexes of the knives, whereby when the cutter-bar is at the point known as dead motion, or midway between the limits of its movement, the front ends of the knives project laterally upon both sides of the fingers; and furthermore, I provide the blunt extremities of the knives with serrations or teeth, which are not designed to cut or come in contact with the grass, grain, or other material to be cut, but which simply serve to remove or cutaway the trash or dirt which may be carried into the slots of the fingers by the knives as they operate laterally; and in addition to the above I construct the fingers with abruptly tapered front ends, thus forming shoulders adjacent to the said reduced necks, whereby the grass or grain to be cut is guided directly to the cutting edges of the knives, and is prevented from coming in contact with the abrupt serrated extremities of the same.

My invention is more fully described hereinafter in connection with the accompanying drawings, and the novel features thereof are particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of a portion of a cutter-bar embodying my invention, showing the parts at dead-motion. Fig. 2 is a similar view, showing the parts at the limit of one stroke of the cutter-bar. Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view of the cutterthe front edge of the finger-bar.

bar. Fig.4 is a detail view in perspective of one of the fingers, detached. Fig. 5 is a reverse plan view of the same.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures of the draw- Ings. j

'1 designates the finger-bar and 2 the fingers which are extended to the rear and are secured to the under side of thebar by suitable bolts as shown at 3. The fingers are cut away at their upper sides adjacent to the front edge of the bar, as shown at 4, to form a seat for the cutter-bar 5, and in front of such seat the fingers are provided with the lateral guidebars 6, which are ofsuch length that the contiguous ends of theguide-bars carried by adjoining fingers are in contact, thus providing a continuous guide which bears against the front edge of the cutter-bar and holds the rear edge of the latter in easy contact with Keepers 7 are secured to the upper surface of the fingerbar and extend forward over the upper side of the cutter-bar to hold the latter in its seat.

All of the fingers are identical in construction, and therefore it will suffice to definitely describe one only. The body-portion 8 of the finger, which is provided with the horizontal slot 9 for the passage of the knife carried by the cutter bar, and is provided upon the floor of such slot with a fixed plate or cutter 10, is tapered horizontally toward its forward end, whereby the lateral edges of said plate or cutter converge toward thefront end of the slot in the finger. Owing to this convergence of the sides or cutting edges of the stationary plate or cutter carried by the finger it is ob vious that the knives l1, which are carried by the cutter-bar, may be constructed with less inclination or convergence of their cutting edges toward their front ends, and therefore that, with the same width of knife, the front extremities, 12, thereof may be made more abrupt or of greater width than in the usualpractice. The tapering of the bodyportion of the finger forms areduced neck 13 at the front extremity of the slot '9, or at the point where the front abrupt end of the cutting knife passes therethrough, whereby when the cutter-bar is at dead-motion, or is at the center of itsstroke, as indicated in Fig. 1,-

the front portion of the knife projects laterally beyond both sides of the neck or reduced portion of the finger. It should be understood, in this connection, that this construction of a neck of less width than the front ex tremity of the knife is not attained byincreasing the width of the finger and of the knife, and hence requiring an increased movement or throw of the cutter-bar. The usual throw of the cutter-bar is sufficient for the purposes of my invention, for the reason that the finger is reduced or tapered in width from its rear toward its front end, thereby causing the stationary plate or cutter to have forwardly converging side edges, and hence the cutting edges of the knife may be arranged at a less inclination or convergence and still maintain the same shearing out which is necessary in mechanisms of this class. I

In front of the above-described bod y-portion of the finger the latter is provided with a tapered guiding point 14:, which is of greater width (approximately about three times the width) at its rear end than the contiguous portion or neck of the finger, thus forming an abrupt shoulder or off-set 15 at each side of the neck, and exactly in the plane of the front end of the slot 9. The rear portion of the guidingpoint is substantially triangular in cross-section, with the apex of the triangle down and the opposite flat side or base above and in the plane of the upper side of the body-portion, and from its rear end the point is tapered abruptly toward its front end to form a sharp spur to pass between the stalks of grass or grain. Owing to the somewhat abrupt taper of the guiding-point, which at its rear end is approximately equal in width to the front abrupt extremity of the knife, the stalks of grass or grain are mainly carried beyond or in rear of the reduced neck of the finger and are presented properly to the cutting edges of the knives for severance.

The front abrupt extremities of the knives are serrated or provided with teeth 15 which, operating in the front ends of the horizontal slots of the fingers, cut away and eifectually remove any trash which may be carried thereinto by the cutting edges of the knives.

The guide-bars 6 which extend laterally from the fingers at their rear ends and meet at points midway between the fingers are ta pered toward their extremities, have rounded under sides, and are provided with reduced front edges, whereby stubbleor trash which may pass to the rear and come in contact therewith is either pushed downward out of the way or is severed by the rear portions of the cutting edges of the knives which pass over the upper surfaces of the guide-bars, thus preventing the crowding of trash into the seat of the cutter-bar.

It will be understood that various changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of construction may be resorted to Without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of my invention.

Having thus described my invention, I claim' 1. In a device of the class described, guardfi-ngers provided with reduced neck-portions in combination with knives provided with abrupt serrated front extremities of greater width than said neck-portions, substantially as specified.

2. In a device of the class described, guardfingers having forwardly tapered body-portions terminating in reduced necks at the forward ends of the knife-receiving slots therein in combination with knives terminating abruptly at their front ends in serrated edges and having their cutting edges arranged at an inclination to form a shear cut with the converging sides of the fingers, substantiallyas specified.

3. In a device of the class described, guardfingers having forwardly tapered body-portions terminating in reduced necks and guiding points terminating at their rear ends in abrupt shoulders contiguous to said reduced necks, in combination with knives having abrupt serrated front extremities, substantially as specified.

4C. In a device of the class described, a knife having cutting edges and an abrupt serrated terminal, substantially as specified.

5. In a device of the class described, the combination with guard-fingers having slots, of a cutter-bar having knives provided with abrupt serrated front ends to operate close to the front ends of said slots, substantially as specified.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN A. KNISLEY.

\Vitnesses:

JACOB Genny, JOHN ODELL. 

